It's not too often someone tries to recreate MTV's Cribs with their van and gets over 1 million views overnight. Yet, that's exactly what Chris & Sara Pochiba did.

Here's the thing though - there's a lot more to Chris & Sara's story than just a viral YouTube video. Getting 5 million views on that first video is incredible, but it also created an interesting challenge: how do you actually build a sustainable business from a viral video on YouTube?

That's exactly what I wanted to know when I sat down to chat with Chris & Sara about their journey to building a $200k+ business around their YouTube channel.

Let's dive into their story:

The Story of Chris & Sara

Before the YouTube Channel

If you're wondering, Chris & Sara are not only business partners, but also life partners first and foremost. I sure couldn't travel in a van for years with someone who was just a business partner lol.

Chris and Sara started their careers on pretty different paths. Sara studied communications at the University of Georgia and went on to work in marketing and communications roles at both the university and a small non-profit. About a year before starting their YouTube channel, Sara left her job to start her own photography business and even began dabbling in software development.

Chris was always drawn to creative work - he was part of the AV club in high school and found himself naturally designing posters and business cards in college, even though he was studying church leadership at Southeastern University. While still in college, he started his own business, Drop Pin Media. It happened pretty organically - someone asked if he could design their business card, and before he knew it, he was taking on more and more projects. Drop Pin Media eventually became his full-time gig after graduation, working with some impressive clients like NY Times Bestsellers Tim Tebow and Amy Porterfield on their book launches and covers.

Chris and Sara's paths crossed in 2014 during a biking trip for a non-profit while Sara was finishing her degree at the University of Georgia. As Chris likes to tell it, "She just couldn't resist the spandex" 😂

After a year of long-distance dating, they both ended up in Raleigh, NC before making their way to Seattle, WA where they eventually eloped. They even shared their elopement story on YouTube a few years ago.

By 2018, a combination of landlord issues in Seattle and a desire to explore more of the world led them to a pretty significant decision: why not just live in a van? Since both could work remotely with their businesses, van life seemed like the perfect way to chase their dream of traveling while working.

Starting a YouTube channel wasn't even on their radar until an encounter with an older couple and their GoPro wearing dog at Disney World.

The Start of the YouTube Channel

Chris and Sara were staying at Disney in their van when this older couple with a dog wearing a GoPro stopped by wanting a tour. As Chris put it, "if they have a YouTube channel, we need to have a YouTube channel." Apparently seeing some of Casey Neistat's content had inspired him too.

Chris eventually convinced Sara to record their first video and pitched it as "MTV Cribs for a van" - which perfectly describes their first video.

I was actually one of those early viewers of that first video. The thumbnail caught my attention because they had two iMacs set up in their van (I had just gotten an iMac and was curious about van life). But I definitely wasn't the only one watching - that video hit 1 million views almost overnight.

With over 5 million views today, that first video actually ended up paying for their entire van conversion through YouTube AdSense revenue alone - pretty wild when you think about it.

But going viral comes with an interesting challenge: what do you do next? For Chris and Sara, they quickly realized they didn't want to just be known as "the van tour people." There's only so many times you can talk about a toilet in a van.

Instead, they decided to shift their content to focus on their actual adventures. They still make van content (well, truck content now!), but most of their videos are about the places they're exploring. As someone who watches their channel pretty regularly, I think they've found a nice blend between the two 🙂

This style of adventuring content continued to do well on YouTube - maybe not 5 million views per video well, but their channel was growing steadily. Then 2020 hit.

At the time, Chris & Sara were in the middle of creating a series about Ireland when the pandemic hit. They got lucky - making it back home just before the travel bans started.

During the lockdown, they ended up making some pretty big life and business decisions. They sold their first van to build a second, smaller one. They bought a house. They even rebranded from their original name "Let's be us" to simply "Chris & Sara." Sara also shifted her focus, moving away from her own projects to help Chris with freelance work and concentrate on their YouTube content.

After the pandemic, they traveled in their new smaller van for about a year before deciding to sell that too. Now they're heading to South America in a truck camper (and yes, they did buy a rickshaw along the way - though thankfully they're not trying to drive that to South America lol).

Today, Chris & Sara's YouTube adventure content has turned into a seriously sustainable business. They're consistently bringing in around $250,000 in annual revenue, with the money coming from several different places:

• 70% - Brand Deals and Affiliates for their YouTube content
• 20% - Freelance projects
• 5% - Blog and Affiliate links
• 5% - Misc (Mostly their own digital products)

Their revenue has been a bit lumpy over the years, but since starting their channel in October 2018, they've managed to build something pretty incredible: a business that lets them travel the world while doing work they actually enjoy.

Growth Strategies of Chris & Sara

If you've read other deep dives, you've probably noticed that there's usually one platform or strategy that outweighs all of the others. It might be Kendall Cherry and her newsletter, or being in the right communities like Jermale Eddie and Malamiah Juice Bar.

The dominant growth strategy for Chris & Sara is pretty obvious - it's YouTube (duh). But they've got some interesting growth strategies running in the background that not only help them reach different audiences, but also create more stable revenue streams.

Social Media

We've talked a lot about YouTube in this deep dive, and it's obviously their main growth channel. But when I chatted with Chris & Sara about their YouTube strategy, they shared some pretty interesting insights.

First, they're all-in on long form video. They've experimented with shorts, but as they told me, it just doesn't feel like them. Actually, they've gone in the complete opposite direction of most creators - they're making their videos even longer.

For example, they recently posted a 1 hour and 27 minute video about their first time in Brazil. It's their best performing one from the last 6 months. My guess is most people are watching these longer videos on their TVs, which makes sense given how YouTube is trying to compete with Netflix, Disney+, and Hulu these days.

Beyond YouTube, Chris & Sara have been pretty clever with other social platforms. Some of Chris's biggest freelancing clients have come from him simply replying to tweets asking for design help - just a "yep, that's me!" to someone asking if anyone knows a designer.

Sure, Chris & Sara have over 141,000 subscribers on YouTube, but their next largest platform is Instagram with just over 21,000 followers. They're proof you don't need massive followings everywhere to make good money. Sometimes it's just about showing up and engaging with people.

SEO

This growth strategy wasn't even on my bingo card when I interviewed Chris & Sara. Honestly, I hadn't even considered it as one of their potential strategies, especially since I'd just spent days hearing other people talk about how SEO was dying and they were losing tons of revenue because of it.

Yet, Chris & Sara are seeing real traction with SEO through their blog. Sara has been investing a lot of her time into it lately, and within the last 12 months, they've grown their blog to about $1,000/month in revenue. This comes mostly through affiliate links and their digital products.

So yes, SEO is definitely changing with AI being at the top of search results now. But in my opinion, SEO isn't dying - it's just evolving.

Relationships

At the very start of this deep dive, I mentioned that Chris started his freelance business by just saying "yes, I can design a business card" to someone even though he barely knew how to do it.

Chris continued to say yes to almost every opportunity when starting his freelance work. While it caused some headaches up front (since they both had to learn a lot of skills on the fly), it's also why Chris & Sara have such a great generalist skillset now.

By having that broad skillset and investing in relationships the way they do, getting referrals and being asked to help with paid projects comes pretty naturally to them.

I've experienced this firsthand - even if someone might not be a potential client or brand partner, Chris & Sara are incredibly kind and supportive. I had the chance to see them present a workshop to a live audience, and their willingness to share their wisdom, knowledge, and experiences was incredible.

It shows that when you're willing to share what you've learned along the way, you end up investing in people in ways you might not even realize. Their approach to relationships is a big reason why I think they've had such great traction on YouTube. Sure, they have great storytelling ability, but the underrated skillset for creators is being able to build genuine relationships.

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